Thanks a lot everybody, I have heard what you are saying, and you won't see any timed puzzles. There might be an action sequence, but don't get me wrong, it's not like, oh my god this is hard. It'd be more like take a gun from the inventory and click the man looking at you, action sequence completed. You might die once, but I'll not stop of giving you clues that it will be coming. Once is definantly enough, if at all. Once you hear my story of the game, you'll realize that these things you hate are kind of nescessary. Also, thanks Tigger, I might put a CD player in the game. One story hint, it's in the not too distant future, so some things will be high tech. A CD player, and it'll have a few songs from No-Offence, that'd be awesome.

I'll have a few Easter Eggs to put up my sleeve. It's not nescessarily a Myst Clone, I am just talking at the cursors. The cursors are going to remind you of Myst, with the hand gestures. But, the way I see it, Myst is the best selling adventure game of all time.

Also, http://www.igf.com/ I'm not sure what it is too much, but it'd be awesome to win it. Is it for beginner game makers or something? Thanks for all your support everyone, I really want to make a game that is fun, and, fun to make.

That depends, if it's important to the story or not. Remember, good storylines work when the writer holds true to the "laws" that he's set for his "world". Have you seen the DVD - The Sixth Sense? There's a great interview with the writer/director for this movie, in it he talks about why his story jumped out and grabed his audience. He mentions exactly about "the rules for his world" and how a writer should not break those rules. This way "the willing suspension of disblief" can not be compromised. In the Gaming world ...Dark Fall has it. So did Myst and it's sequels. Good luck, Darrin. We right here for you. You can do this! We believe in you.Inferno

Oh Alex, I loved The Others! I was watching it and said, "This would make a great Adventure game". I saw a program in my local Hasting's that made Adventure games, but I can't remember the name of it. I think it was 39.95. I started to get it, and try a game based loosely on a cross of The Others and What Lies Beneath. I just have not been inspired yet, I have over 100 unplayed games, waiting for me in the cabinet. I just want to play. I hope you do something based on The Others too! Looking forward to whatever you are working on now. I saw your post before where you spoke of maybe making a game yourself.I loved the trivia type puzzles in Cassandra Galleries.Happy game making, Julie

Mist-like is good. But if you let your character die, please be sure to have him/her brought back to that same location. NO ' GAME OVER' !!!, or reloading!! , or "And poor Seth was never seen again" !!!We might trade your Easter Eggs, and toss you some of the 'other' kind.

When I hear a game described as a "Myst clone", my first reaction oh no not another one. I do not like lonely games with static screens. I like to have a good story with character interaction. If you can't tell I am a 3rd person fan.

Alex, I do admire the fact that you do want to make a game and I do wish you the best of luck in it. Since you are set in making it a first person game, have full 3D movement where you steer(look left/right and up/down) with the mouse and move either with the arrow keys or the right mouse button.

If you decide to have some action elements in it, have it so that if you die, you are placed just back at the scene. Also if you die say three times in a row, give the person the option of either trying again or being able to skip it.

You said you are going to have inventory, so have items in your inventory with a name attached to it.

One last thing, if the game is going to be on more than one CD, one should be able to start the game on whatever CD they are on. Do not force us to start with disk one. Also have an option for a full install no matter how many CD's the game is on.

Lots of people have commented, regarding Syberia, that they wish more things in the environment were clickable... not neccessarily parts of the game, but clickable and a little bit interactive, just to thicken up the immersion level. An example might be a painting on the wall might well be irrelevent to the game & puzzles, but it is decoration. In a first/third person setting, it might be nice to have the protagonist comment on the picture.

I know I haven't expressed this very well... you might like to look at some of the Syberia threads to get a better idea of what I'm trying to say... I'm still on my first cup of coffee of the morning.

Congrat.D.Darrin,I'm looking forward to playing your game,but...I do love Myst-clones,but I'd like more to talk about other classic games-clones,a.ex.Obsidian-Shivers-GK-Timelapse-TexMurphy-Azrael'sTear clones.So my request is:1)Refer to the above mentioned games2)First person3)DIFFICULT PUZZLES,please!!I want to rack my brain for one or two days to solve them, and many notes full on my desk!!Thanks Bombou

Myst clones im not sure about, but Myst/Riven were for me the best point and click games ever made (no inventory here!). Personally i still think that no body has made a game to rival Riven as yet. Dont know what it is but Riven has got it.

Good luck, just to think if you managed to better myst/riven well that millions of games sold world-wide. The Miller brothers should be your next stop, if they will give you 5 mins!

Okay people. It's not going to be a lot like a Myst-Clone now. It's going to have tons of ineraction, you click on it, and the character will give a comment, like Nice picture. Great painting, and I'll see what I can do to make some characters, but I might have a few tricks to do differently.

Believe me, I am probably one of the only ones that HATED Schizm on this board. I didn't like one thing about it, other then the cool graphics. It wasn't my game. It was WAY too hard, and no game should be that hard!

Have you got a detailed idea for the plot in your head (or on paper)? I don't want to sound negative but I'd really advise you not to start the game unless you have a strong knowledge of what's going to happen throughout it. Your posts mention a lot about music, but very little about plot and setting, so I thought I'd better post an irritating comment like that. <img border="0" title="" alt="[Razz]" src="tongue.gif" />

As far as puzzles go, I prefer inventory-based puzzles too (when done well) because I feel they can be much more closely intertwined with the plot than mechanical puzzles. Also, they tend to rely on a simple 'Eureka!' moment on the part of the player, without fiddling, thus maximising thought and minimising work. There's nothing to say you can't have both types of puzzle, though.

Action elements in an adventure are fine the way you have described them. The idea is that once the player has worked out what they're supposed to do, the 'action' is very easy to take, right? Like in Full Throttle, or the end puzzle of The Secret of Monkey Island, or that clifftop moment in Broken Sword?

Giving the player freedom to interact with their environment is a very good idea. It all helps to create the impression of a living, breathing gameworld.

Making a game is a lot of work, so the best of luck for the slog ahead.